We're fixing problems, assisted-living manager tells residents

Residents of Emeritus at Crossing Pointe, an Orange County assisted-living facility where state regulators have halted admissions because of health and safety problems, had many questions Monday.

What fixes have been made by management? When will things be back to normal?

Acting executive director Pam Campbell tried to answer them at a town-hall meeting in the facility ballroom."I don't feel we're the same community we were three months ago," she said.

That's a reference to a state inspection in September, which found three dozen problems, including an 82-year-old woman who died after a medication mix-up that left her without her "life-saving" heart medicine for four days.

Magdalena Marrone died of cardio-pulmonary arrest Aug. 26. The Florida Department of Children and Families investigated and concluded she suffered from medical neglect and inadequate supervision but did not blame her death on the facility.

Inspectors with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration also found:

-- One resident who was given a blood thinner prescribed for another resident. It made her so sick, she had to go to the hospital for an emergency blood transfusion.

-- An employee who had falsified medication and nurse's orders.

-- Alzheimer's patients with toenails so long they curled around their toes.

-- Residents with seeping and infected bed sores.

-- Managers who on four days in one week could not give an accurate resident count.

The Orlando Sentinel published a story on the problems Sunday. A reporter attended the Monday meeting as a guest of a resident and listened to the entire presentation before Campbell learned of the newspaper's presence and asked the reporter to leave.

During her talk to residents, Campbell did not dispute the state findings or the newspaper story, which she called "heart-breaking."

More than 50 residents and family members gathered for the meeting, many using wheelchairs or walkers. Some had no idea about the depth of the problems. They knew something was wrong, they said, because managers kept leaving. They also couldn't get the help they needed from nurse's aides, and employees at the front desk would not tell them what was happening.

A virus had spread through the facility in August, sickening 19 residents and two staff members. Managers shut down the dining room for four days.

That infection was not something the state cited the facility for. It happened shortly before inspectors arrived.

Campbell and a new, temporary team of problem solvers were sent in in August and September, she said. When they arrived, shortly before inspectors, they found conditions that were "not what Emeritus stands for. . . . This is very sad for us."

The facility is one of more than 300 assisted-living facilities operated by Emeritus Corp., a Seattle company that serves 32,400 residents, according to its Web site.

Emeritus at Crossing Pointe is licensed for 185 people. Campbell said Monday it now has 155 to 159. She did not explain how so many things went wrong, except to say, "It was just broken systems, not having the right systems and following them."

She would not answer questions Monday from the Sentinel, but she did offer to read the Sunday news story to one resident who explained that her eyesight was so bad, she could not read small print.

"I can assure you, what you read in the paper is not the Crossing Pointe of today," Campbell told residents.

The biggest problem she inherited, she said, was inadequate nursing care and a lack of control over medication. The medicine problems have been solved, she said.

"We don't have those problems anymore. They don't exist," she said.

It is not clear when the state will lift the admission moratorium. That will happen once AHCA re-inspects the facility and concludes its problems are resolved.

"We spoke to them last week," Campbell said. "We're ready for them any day."